The Legendary Stotesbury Emerald Sells for $1 Million

The Stotesbury Emerald just sold at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels auction for $1 million, and while the 34-carat hexagon-shaped stone is stunning in its own right, the gem's pedigree—it passed through the collections of three socialite jewelry collectors and two iconic jewelry houses—is really what makes it interesting.

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Back in 1908, the verdant Colombian gem was first crafted by Pierre Cartier into a custom necklace for mining heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean.

Two years later, the jewelry maker visited McLean again, this time bringing an even more striking gem: the now-infamous Hope Diamond. The socialite clearly liked what she saw, and the pair reportedly agreed that payment for the enormous 45.52-carat blue rock would include the necklace featuring the emerald and the Star of the East.

However, the sale turned out to be quite contentious. According to Sotheby's, the "title of the Hope Diamond was officially transferred in 1912 after a bitter court battle between Cartier and the McLeans, and the hexagon-shaped emerald now belonged to the design house."

From there, the stone was bought by socialite number two: Eva Stotesbury, wife of J.P. Morgan's banking partner, Edward T. Stotesbury, who had Cartier refashion an uncomfortable diamond and emerald tiara (ugh, I hate it when that happens) into a "suite" of jewelry including a necklace and earrings in addition to the diadem. The emerald, which came to share her name, became the center stone of the necklace.

The suite was sold to Harry Winston in 1946, who once again reimagined the jewelry, fashioning that center stone into a ring, which was eventually sold to May Bonfils Stanton, philanthropist, jewelry collector, and heiress to the Denver Post fortune.

It was sold once more in 1971, and has been in the possession of that owner up until this week's sale. Frank Everett, sales director of the Sotheby’s New York jewelry department, doesn't think a provenance as interesting could ever be repeated. “No one lives like this today, no one collects jewelry like this today,“ he told the New York Times. “To think about this one jewel going through the hands of these three fabulous women and two legendary jewelry houses, you just couldn’t make it up.”

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